Archie Barnes
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Born
in 1931 in Holmwood, Dorking, Surrey, Archie was the eldest child of a large
family. He always had a natural aptitude for languages - he won a scholarship
to Dorking Grammar School, and taught himself Chinese from a book on his lap
during Latin lessons, with the encouragement of a local church minister; and,
aged 17, passed the London Matriculation exam in Chinese. He
already excelled at Latin and German, and had a working knowledge of
Greek and Russian. He
then went on to SOAS, University of London to read Chinese and graduated with
a First in 1952. He was always proud that he was the first member of the
family to go to university. After National Service in Germany and Korea, he
became a freelance translator, translating 12 books during the late
1950s and early 1960s. In
1961 Archie joined the University of Durham to lecture in Chinese, where he
remained until his early retirement through ill-health. He
died in 2002 after completing "Chinese Through Poetry", a book
which was built on a life of learning and teaching. |
Chinese Through Poetry
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A.C.Barnes,
Chinese through Poetry: An Introduction
to the Language and Imagery of Traditional Verse. "This
is the first book to deal specifically and comprehensively with this topic.
It approaches Classical Chinese through verse instead of prose. Script,
grammar and vocabulary are taught from scratch, enabling the work to be used
as a first introduction to traditional literary Chinese by anyone with no
knowledge of the language. It should be of interest to ethnic Chinese wishing
to recover their cultural roots. The book can also be used as an introduction
to Chinese verse for its own sake, either independently or as part of a more
general course. It
is suitable for undergraduates as part of a course in Classical Chinese. It
is also suitable for private study with or without previous knowledge of
Chinese. It should also be of interest to comparative linguists.The exercises
are progressive in that each is restricted to the vocabulary and grammar met
so far. Apart from a comprehensive coverage of grammar, there are sections
exemplifying other linguistic features: a detailed treatment of five verbs of
completion and cessation and of five twin-words (reduplicative binomes);
tonal patterning; some colour-words; rhyme; and five units on ambiguity of
vocabulary and function." 'Chinese Through Poetry'
is now available from Amazon.com... <click
here> The
introduction can be previewed here in
Adobe PDF format. If you do not already have it you can download Adobe's PDF
reader here.
We recommend version 7. |
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Translations of Poems
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Archie
translated some of "the 300 Poems" into English. His
favourite translation was from the 8th century Chinese poet, Du Fu: |
The Seagulls Along
the river’s edge the cold gulls play, with
no other concern than doing as they please; changing
their minds, they turn their jade-white wings; following
their fancy, they dot the green rice-shoots. When
snow is dark they still must bathe; when
the wind rises, they drift, unresisting. A
few flocks over the blue sea, pure
figures daily uttering desolate cries. |
VOLATS
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In
1976 Archie developed VOLATS ("Vocabulary Learning and Testing
System") to help his students learn vocabulary - proving the system by
learning languages such as Cornish and Gaelic. The
details are documented here
on David Barnes' web site. |
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